Lighten Up!

Well, last week, I got my shopping jones. The kids were at school, so I had a little time on my hands, but really I had been thinking about it before. It’s spring here. Officially, the tourist season began April 1, so lots of stores and restaurants are open for the first time since we arrived. The weather is warmer and more people are on the streets of Antibes. The tourist train is running!

I keep threatening Samuel that if he misbehaves,
I'm going to make him ride this through town right when the schools let out!

Let me just say that I think I did an amazing job of packing us all up for three months! I had followed the advice of a couple of travel web sites and kept to a simple color palette for my clothes: black, grey, blue and cream, with one accent color (I chose red). No prints (they don’t match everything else). Not a lot of white (I regretted bringing white immediately after the first time I did laundry— the chalky water in Sancerre turned our whites clay colored). I did the same thing with my kids outfits— very smart packing. Even so, with all of our suitcases and switching trains in Paris to get from Sancerre to Antibes, I still wished I’d packed lighter. And I need to get even lighter to give Taylor a big suitcase to take home before our next leg.

I was preparing to take my kids to church for the first time on Palm Sunday and realized as I put my outfits together that I brought a lot of black to France— hardly spring fashion!

Samuel walked in from Judo
as I was writing this. Either he got tall,
or he lost weight-- probably both.

And it’s not just that I’m bored wearing the same clothes for two months— they are literally worn out! The boys’ clothes are worse because I wash those more. Bennett and Cooper have holes in shirts, ripped cuffs. Bennett went right through the knees of his only jeans playing table tennis last week! I have to say, I didn’t expect all of this washing and wearing to make our clothes fall apart!  Poor Samuel’s pants are falling off of him! Despite his bread and chocolate diet, the kid has lost a lot of weight from all of our activity. Definitely time to go shopping!

I didn’t want to spend a ton of money— clothes here are expensive! Of course I intend to pick up a few fashion souvenirs to bring home, but right now I am thinking about my essentials. I chose a new scarf to lighten things up a bit and pull in some spring colors. Then (sorry to my husband, who is convinced I have an outerwear psychosis) I bought a new coat— this time, a light khaki. It’s not waterproof, but it came with a hood, so I can wear it in a light rain. I’ll send my black liner and navy coat home with Taylor, and keep this lighter coat and waterproof shell in case we get really terrible weather in the UK. 

Then I found a pastel colored blouse at this store that I think is the French version of The Limited— but it’s cute and matches the one skirt I brought— I plan to wear it for Easter. OK— making progress, blouse, coat, scarf. Then I decided to get some shoes! 

I wanted to buy these:

But, I still have a lot of walking to do on this trip, and limited room in the suitcase, so I bought these:

New shoes, scarf

new coat-- feeling like Spring!

Remember my first fashion post about shoes? I bought my black flats as an afterthought. I ended up wearing them much more than my hikers. They are very comfortable, even for long distances, and who wants to look like a hiker all of the time? Look at the shoes I brought; you can see how much walking we’ve done. Wow— and getting ready to do more! 

Can't believe I've worn these so much!

There’s a shoe store down the street where I see a lot of old ladies “licking the windows”— that’s the literal translation of the French saying for “window shopping.” I knew that was the place I needed to go for comfortable shoes :). Definitely a good move. I’ve given them a trial run on the streets of Antibes and I think they’ll be great for Paris. 

On to the kids— there’s a weekly clothing market here that is amazing. I got Samuel a pair of shorts for 5 euro (and myself a longer pair of shorts— also 5 euros— suddenly I am 45 and in France, I am very self-conscious in my short shorts!); I picked up a belt for Samuel. I had to replace two pair of pants for Bennett, so I hit a sale at the French version of “gymboree.” French clothes for children are so adorable! I requested that Taylor bring him some more shirts, but Taylor is afraid he doesn’t have room in his luggage, so I bought Bennett another shirt— but then I HAD to buy him a scarf and hat for a total French ensemble: 

soooo cute! 

Waiting to pick up some a shirt or two for Cooper somewhere and that should get us through the next month here. I popped into the Red Cross office around the corner to ask about donations, but I feel a little guilty dropping off our worn out clothes! Better to get rid of them now than on the side of the road in England, I guess (hopefully the correct side of the road, that is!— but that’ll be a later post!)